Passenger vehicles, such as automobiles and aircraft, often provide information systems to satisfy passenger demand for viewing content during travel.
Conventional passenger information systems include overhead cabin viewing systems and/or seatback viewing systems with individual controls for presenting selected viewing content. The viewing content typically includes entertainment content, such as audio and/or video materials, and can be derived from a variety of content sources. For instance, prerecorded viewing content, such as motion pictures and music, can be provided by internal content sources, such as audio and video systems, that are installed within the vehicle. External content sources likewise can transmit viewing content, including satellite television or radio programming and Internet content, to the vehicle via wireless communication systems.
These information systems typically must be designed to operate under strict power, weight, and other restrictions when installed aboard the passenger vehicle. In aircraft applications, for example, the trend in modern commercial aircraft designs is to move toward incorporating smaller power generator models in order to improve aircraft flight performance and operational characteristics. The smaller power generator models, however, have reduced power capacity, further limiting the amount of power that can be appropriated for use throughout the passenger cabin. Despite being subjected to increasingly severe power restrictions, the in-flight entertainment industry recently reported an exponential increase in passenger power usage with the introduction of personal electronic (or media) device (PED) power sources as well as a number of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies, such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) and laptop connectivity at the passenger seat.
Increased power usage, coupled with demand for high-performance information systems and reduced power availability, has created a condition within the commercial aircraft cabin that demands intervention. Currently-available commercial power control architectures typically utilize a plurality of master control units and a tri-state unidirectional signal at the column level to manage PED power only. Such management architectures, however, are crude, indiscriminant, and incapable of managing PED power at the passenger seat level. These management architectures likewise do not provide control over other equipment within the passenger cabin. Being provided as stand-alone systems, these conventional management architectures are intrusive and fail to manage global power distribution within the passenger cabin.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for an improved system and method for providing power management to optimize the distribution of power and its usage within a passenger cabin that overcomes the aforementioned obstacles and deficiencies of currently-available power management architectures.
It should be noted that the figures are not drawn to scale and that elements of similar structures or functions are generally represented by like reference numerals for illustrative purposes throughout the figures. It also should be noted that the figures are only intended to facilitate the description of the preferred embodiments. The figures do not illustrate every aspect of the described embodiments and do not limit the scope of the present disclosure.